


The Orphan

by Ruuger



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 20:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30044013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: The thing that first alerted Din that something was going on, was the silence.
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Comments: 13
Kudos: 66





	The Orphan

The thing that first alerted Din that something was going on, was the silence. 

It wasn't the dangerous kind of silence that he'd been taught to recognise by his trainers in the Fighting Corps, but the kind that he'd only learned about after he'd started travelling with the child. Silence that he now knew meant that the child was doing something that he knew Din wouldn't approve. Somehow, Din found this silence even more worrying than the other kind.

He put down his tool box and walked to the cot where the child had been still sleeping when he'd gone out in the morning to fix the slight wobble he'd noticed in one of the thrusters. As he'd feared, the cot was empty.

"Kid?"

He checked the refresher and the carbonite chambers first, and then every other nook on the lower level that the child might hide in. He'd left the ramp open, so he knew the child could have followed him outside without him noticing, but he'd learned to trust his instinct when it came to the child, and his instinct said that he was onboard the ship.

He was just checking the weapon's cabinet, when he heard a quiet mewling sound coming from the upper level. Din frowned. It didn't sound like the child, or anything else that he could recognise. He took the ladder up, his hand resting on his blaster just in case.

When he entered the cockpit, he immediately spotted the child tucked into the corner behind the passenger seat, his back towards Din, cooing quietly to himself.

"Kid? What are you doing?"

The child glanced at Din over his shoulder, looking suspiciously guilty, and then reluctantly turned around to reveal that he was holding a small, grey tooka-kitten. Din's automatic reaction was to tell the child to not eat it, but then he realised that the child wasn't trying to cram the tooka into his mouth like he did with most things he got hold of, but was instead gently petting its head.

He knelt down to get a better look, and then reached to take the tooka from the child. 

"C'mon, pal. Hand it over."

The child made a sad noise when Din separated him from his new friend. 

The tooka-kitten was barely the size of Din's thumb, but very much alive, clawing and biting Din's glove as he studied it. Din turned to the child again.

"Where did you find this?"

The child was quiet for a moment, watching him with a serious look on his face like he was trying to decide if he was in trouble, but then reached up to take Din's finger in his clawed hand and tugged at it to indicate that he wanted Din to follow him. 

The child led Din out of the ship and to a small clearing a little way off from Razor Crest. Finally he stopped in front of a thick bush and pointed underneath it. When Din knelt down, he saw another, larger tooka lying in it's shade. It's fur was matted with blood and when Din touched it, it was cold and stiff.

"It must have been killed by some predator already a few days ago," he told the child, and then stood up again. "The kitten won't survive alone for long, it needs to be with it's family."

He quickly scanned the near-by woods to see if there were any other tookas in the area, but found no sign of them. "I don't-" he started, but was interrupted when he felt something tugging his cape. 

When he looked down, he saw that the child was hugging his boot, staring at him with a pleading look in his eyes as he reached his clawed hand up towards the tooka kitten.

Din closed his eyes, wishing that he'd just thought to lock up the ship when he'd gone out in the morning. He let out a deep sigh. 

"Fine, you can keep it," he said, and leaned down to give the tooka-kitten to the child. The child cooed happily as he hugged the kitten to its chest.

"But you're going to have to take care of it yourself. I already have enough work with you."

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently the you're supposed to use the end notes to advertise your Tumblr/Twitter/Discord these days, but I'm oldTM and so I only have a [Dreamwidth](https://ruuger.dreamwidth.org/).
> 
> (come to ~~the Dark Side~~ Dreamwith, people! We have communities and privacy options!)


End file.
